CASTLETON — Anne L. Emery, 71, of Castleton, died January 22, 2013, at The Pines nursing home in Rutland, after a battle with ALS.

She was born on March 4, 1941, in Boston, Mass., to Harriette (Smith) Cushman and David Cushman.

The family resided in Willis, Mass., and Walpole, Mass., for several years before moving to Vermont to buy and operate a dairy farm in Shoreham. The farm was sold, and Anne and her family moved to Florida where Anne graduated from Lake Worth High School in 1958.

Anne graduated from the Sheldon Academy of Beauty Culture in Burlington, Vt., in 1959. She was a beautician for several years working in salons in Florida and finally at Bertha’s hairstyling which was located on Wales Street in Rutland.

She married Willard N. “Bill” Lucia of Orwell, Vt., in 1960, and then welcomed a daughter, Jerri Anne, born in June of 1961. Her husband, Bill, sadly died when Jerri Anne was just four years old.

Anne, in later years, worked as an elder caregiver in private homes in the Castleton area.

She was involved with the Castleton Community Center’s knitter’s group. Anne was honored for knitting nearly 100 helmet liners for our soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan. Her intricate knitted and crocheted items won her many blue ribbons at the Rutland County Fair through the years.

Anne was also a very talented and accomplished writer, having written many works in the form of poems, prose and very clever and fun riddles and quips. She was a member of the Castleston Community’s creative writing group.

Anne enjoyed music. She played guitar and enjoyed singing alto in a church choir, and also in the Friends and Neighbors Barbershop Chorus, a singing group made up of women from surrounding towns.

It was Anne’s delight to visit with friends and neighbors, and loved serving them tea and cookies at her kitchen table, which was always decorated elaborately for each season. She loved to bargain shop at lawn sales and could be ready in the “wink of an eye” to accompany anyone who would invite her to ride along.

Anne is survived by her daughter, Jerri Anne, and her two granddaughters, Kaylie and Erin, all of Colorado; two brothers, John Cushman, an educator, and his wife Barbara of Albuquerque, N.M., and Stephen Cushman, educator and organist, and his wife Wasthi of Wisconsin; a cousin, attorney Gregg Wilson and wife Dianne of Essex Junction, Vt.; as well as numerous other cousins, nieces and nephews.

She was married in 1975 to Owen Emery of Franklin, Mass., who has since predeceased her.

A memorial service will be held in March. There will be no calling hours.

Donations may be made to the Castleton Community Center, 2108 Main St., Castleton, VT 05735; or the ALS Association New England Chapter, The Concord Center, 10 Ferry St., Suite 309, Concord, NH 03301.